Dr. Cassandra A. Lee is an Orthopaedic Surgeon with subspecialty certification in sports medicine. She is the Chief of the Sports Medicine Service and Professor of Orthopaedics at University of California Davis Health. She currently serves as team physician for collegiate and professional teams including the University of California at Davis Aggies and the Sacramento Republic FC.
Dr. Lee earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with Summa Cum Laude distinction and Doctor of Medicine degree at Boston University. She completed her residency training at Wake Forest University and sports medicine fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, serving as team physician for the Washington University Bears, St. Louis Rams, and St. Louis Blues.
Dr. Lee was awarded the ICRS -Zimmer scholarship Program in 2013 and the Lars Petersen Travelling Fellowship in 2017. She was a member of the ICRS Communications Committee (2016-2018) and a member (2018) and Co-Deputy Chair (2019-2023) of the Next Gen Committee.
Dr. Lee’s clinical interests are in sports related shoulder and knee injuries with an emphasis on joint preservation of the knee. Her research expertise is in the study of cartilage regeneration with an increasing clinical interest in managing and modulating osteoarthritis. She is focusing her research towards mechanistically modulating post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA).
Dr. Lee served as co-investigator on awards funded by American federal (NIH, Department of Defense) and industry funders, including an ongoing NIH funded study on biomechanical interventions after joint injury and their effect on initiation and progression of PTOA. She also has experience leading patient recruitment into industry-sponsored clinical trials for surgical and conservative treatments. In addition, she has been active in teaching and mentoring the next generation of surgeons, having served as residency program director at UC Davis but also faculty instructor at a variety of arthroscopic and advanced surgical courses. Through her research and teaching, she has developed strong clinical and research partnerships with the investigators nationally and internationally.
